Various types of reacher-grabber tools are known in the prior art. Examples are found in U.S. Pat. No. 8,091,936 issued to Graziano on January 2011; U.S. Pat. No. 4,613,179 issued to van Zelm on September 1986; U.S. Pat. No. 4,441,746 issued to Corboy, Jr. on April 1984; U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,590 issued to Forrest on October 1998, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,467,823 issued to Brekken on October 2002.
Prior reacher-grabber tools provide clamping appendages with gripping ends that extend from an end of a pole. The appendages open and close by squeezing a spring handle style trigger or pulling a rope at the opposite end of the pole. This conventional form of reacher-grabber tool has limitations for the user with weak finger muscles or no gripping capability. It has a fixed reach length due to the operating mechanism. A limited number of tasks can be performed by the apparatus. Such prior tools have some or all of the following disadvantages:                The reach of the tool is fixed by the length of the operator linkage to the grasping apparatus, making interchangeable or extendable poles impractical. This lack of extendability means a ladder is needed by the operator for very high and very low distances.        The clamping appendages must be manipulated into an open position before being able to grasp or hook the work object, thus requiring additional space to perform the action.        Lacks capability to adjust plantation style window shutter louvers.        Lacks capability to lock some types of objects into the tool including pull-chains positioned at any angle as well as wire and cord with or without a pull-button for manipulation.        Clamping fingers require an opposed moving finger to grasp a work object. A single finger cannot clamp or grasp the work object independently.        The contact mechanism provides only one suitable engagement angle, so only one approach angle is available.        Operating two movable handle pieces or devices makes it difficult to rotate the tool 360 degrees in either direction with one hand.        Multi-purpose functionality for additional tasks such as scraping is not facilitated.        The force used to retrieve or manipulate an object once contact is made is left to the operator's hand squeezing strength on the trigger or handles to provide the necessary force to retain the object within the clamping appendages.        No part stops insertion of an appendage at a specific distance relative to a work object such as a louver for opening and closing the louver on one side of its pivot axis.        